What I'll do for a deal...

I have been researching swing sets for Logan pretty much since last summer.  We are in a rental with a smaller back yard, so we needed a small set.  I didn't want to pay a whole lot because we will eventually get him a nice wooden swing set.  I had hoped to get one at our consignment sale, but they were already gone by the time I got there.  I opened my email to day and see a great deal on this:


The Toys R Us price was over $100 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else.  I called our local store and I was told they had one in stock.  Since I was worried it would be gone by the time I got there, I decided to order it online since the website said shipping was free on everything.  So into my online cart the item goes and I check out the total...WTH!!  Shipping was $224!!  Shipping alone was more than the $150 price of the set.  I know Logan would love this set because of all the climbing areas.  It is really hard to find a set like this with a decent swing, so even though it has no swing-he needs this. 

So off I go to our local Toys R Us.  I get there, grab the card and take it up to the front to pay for the set.   Guess what- they don't really have any in stock.  The store manager tells me that they can probably get the shipping waived and order it online for me.  So after about 15 minutes and several phone calls later, it is determined that this is one of the few items that shipping cannot be waived.  Then another girl thinks she can get it from another store.  After about 30 minutes, many phone calls, and the help of about 4 other staff personnel, I was able to purchase the set for $140 (I had another $10 off coupon that could only be used in the store) and the set should be in either next week or the week after.

I really appreciate that they went to so much trouble to allow me to get the item, but Toys R Us is a big chain and you would think that they would have a quicker way of getting this situation figured out.

a) who charges $220 shipping??? Really?  There's an easy fix to that problem.

b) why do they make it so difficult for the employees to get the items shipped from another store?  Living in rural America, our stores rarely keep large items in stock, so I am sure this is not the first time a request like mine has come through the door.

c) it should not take almost an hour for a huge store like Toys R Us to figure out how to get an item for a customer that they do not have in stock.

d) why not have rain checks on the price?  That would have made things very easy.  Give me a rain check for the price and call me when another set came into the store.  That would have taken like 5 minutes.

All in all, our local Toys R Us worked really hard to get me my item for the price I wanted, but it seems they shouldn't have had to work so hard.  I'm very excited for the set to come.  It will be Logan's Easter present from the Easter Bunny!!